The arrival in Japan is the entry into another world. Forget the reality you are used to because here everything is new, unknown and discoverable. It’s a bit like when you are a kid and you are watching and discovering the world for the first time. Everything seems new and you are not able to read and communicate how it would be (obviously I refer to who as I did not study this idiom).
The best way to appreciate and understand this country and its people? As always, DON’T HAVE PREJUDICES.
The first time I entered a convenience store was a huge discovery for me, the first thing I noticed was a coffee table with the food stuffed in the hot soup to take away. That food, those odors for me were something new. But soon I realized that what seemed special to me was just one of the many special things I would see. I do not know how to explain but immersing myself fully in the culture of the place I experienced a double feeling: the enthusiasm of the discovery that made me take pictures but at the same time the awareness that for the locals all this was normal and I was at that moment I was part of it. On many occasions, I became aware that what counted was not to take photos and document but to live that moment and experience that way. It is the inner conflict between feeling “photographer” and feeling a traveler. Having gone with my then Japanese boyfriend, I had the opportunity and the fortune to find myself eating or drinking in places just frequented by “locals”. Eating alone Japanese surroundings, being the only western person on a train, in a Honsen or in a small village has made this experience really special. Without him, I would never have had such an authentic and so intense experience because through him I was able to meet and attend places that most tourists will not be able to do for a simple reason: the language barrier.
All that can be seen as a fascinating aspect, and of course it is, is at the same time a difficulty. Sit at a table without knowing what to order, go shopping at the supermarket without knowing what to buy, having something in particular, and not being able to explain it can be disarming. You feel helpless because you can not communicate.
Traveling to Japan without knowing the Japanese involve an inevitable distance between the visitor and the local population. In Japan, English is not a common language even in big cities. In fact, where English speakers are present, this is indicated and indicated to help tourists; In the main stations, you will actually see the staff rigorously in uniform with an “English speaking” tag.
There are not many Japanese who know English and this is one of the many contradictions in this country: maybe some would expect that being a country that attracts many tourists and is famous for its avant-garde and efficiency, it is also in these Terms. In fact, I think the lack of knowledge of the language is due to mostly cultural issues, Japan and the Japanese are a culturally-cultured people, and for that reason perhaps the study of the English language of a language coming from outside is Spreading so slowly.
I think that being able to speak a common language, and whether or not it is the only one that can play this role is English, is a good opportunity to meet people to understand each other. On many occasions, I would have liked to be able to communicate with the people who were next to me and it is really disarming and difficult to be able to express my thoughts to another person.
I am also convinced that it is fair to teach English in developing countries because this can mean creating more opportunities for young people to work. But at the same time, I think one of the most significant and special aspects of a trip to Japan is the fact that most of its inhabitants speak only Japanese, that the menus of some good restaurants to make an example are not translated into English.
Perhaps magic lies in this, in finding ourselves in front of signs we can never understand, looking at the tourist map of a city and wondering what these symbols mean by not being able to sound and not read.
But what is it that makes this country unique and why did the Westerners always be fascinated?
Before I came with my boyfriend, I did not expect to visit Japan very soon, I wanted to visit it during the cherry blossom or during autumn autumnal leaves, many told me to go there but I always said that the world was so big That there was no hurry! I realized I was wrong as soon as I started to inform me about places of interest and as soon as my ex-boyfriend to give me the first ideas of itineraries. I came back to my mind about some studies done at the superiors and universities on this country and its people, but above all, I was curious to know if the atmospheres and places that had so fascinated me looking at the manga like Inuyasha, Ranma ½ or souls Japanese in general really existed.
Japan is a country full of contradictions, between the ancient and the modern, between tradition and modern technology.
These opposites are noticed in places but also in customs and customs: on the one hand there are temples, people who pray and perform ancient rituals, traditional houses, tatami, futon, women wearing kimono or yukata , In fact, Japan, which has always been in love with travelers from all over the world; On the other there are tall buildings with billboards, lights, consumerism, technology.
I think that what strikes the traveler is just that contrast because here as in just a few other places in the world these contrasts coexist quite well. Indeed, in spite of their love for technology, the Japanese are at the same time linked to their culture, the culinary, but also the artistic one, and are very close to their traditions.
The Japanese are the same people who spend their time playing video games or buying consumer goods, but they are also those who go to lunch in the temples to pray and go to look at the cherry blossoms.
Japan is a country that offers so much to the traveler, it is a country rich in history, culture, and traditions, with beautiful naturalistic places, but also with cities with many attractions full of modernity.
Our trip started in Osaka more because Sydney was the cheapest destination and because our tour would still have to end in Tokyo. We stayed in Osaka for one night, staying in a traditional guesthouse and coming into contact with the basics of Japanese culture, I was amazed at everything, for me everything was a novelty, but both of us were both affected in ways other than kindness and l ‘Hospitality of this people, because it was a new thing for me, while for my ex because after a year in Sydney she had forgotten how people could be so kind. We both felt pampered.
Osaka also represented for me the first impact with the Japanese city, big, full of billboards, lights, and people, lots of people!
It’s here that I started to taste Japanese cuisine, the okonomiyaki, who was born right here and has soon become famous all over the world.
After Osaka, we decided to go to Kyoto. I was very curious and excited to see this city especially because I had read memories of a Geisha years ago, so I wanted to see the Gion neighborhood.
The city of Kyoto is the city that best represents Japanese history and culture, it is a city full of temples and shrines, a timeless atmosphere where it is easy to find streets and silent places.
Despite the city being modern, with shops, and shopping streets, Kyoto with its temples and its history encloses its ancient atmosphere. As soon as you arrive in the city you will be able to get a map of the city where the temples indicated with a sort of swastika are shown.
Not to be missed by the many beautiful temples, the Ginkakuji temple, which has its own classic Japanese gardens inside, in this temple, more than others, is able to get away from the crowd and walk-in zen silence. The sanctuary Fushimi Inari Taisha, the most famous in Kyoto and probably all over Japan, known for its intense orange-colored torrents with Japanese inscriptions.
The temple of the golden pavilion Kinkaku-Ji, the entire pavilion is covered with pure gold leaves and is found in the water surrounded by rich vegetation.
Do not miss a walk through the streets of the geyser district of Gion but also a relaxed afternoon on the waters of the river Kamo Gawa where it is not uncommon to see Japanese girls dressed in traditional dresses sitting on the grass or boys in the typical school uniform.
Try to sleep in traditional accommodation, not only ryokan but also hotels where Japanese-style rooms are provided, the most beautiful thing for me was to walk barefoot on the tatami, smell the material that has ever been seen and touched before. You will notice many girls dressed in traditional clothes, it is good to know that many of them are not Japanese but tourists who have rented traditional clothes with sandals.
In Kyoto, but also in Tokyo, there are several make-up studios where you can get dressed and dress like a maiko (a young geisha) or an adult geisha.
From Kyoto we decided to move to Nara, Japan’s oldest capital, to visit the Tōdai-Ji Temple, one of the city’s most important museums, and is the largest wooden building in the world.
But Nara is also famous, especially for animals near the nearby public park, deer, considered sacred animals. It will be fun to see how these cute animals have fun chasing you and bothering you to eat.
From Nara, we took a train to take us back to Kyoto to take a shinkansen for Shizuoka. Thanks to a friend of my Japanese boy, Shizuoka Prefecture, we could spend the day in the thè field of this area, but also visit temples outside the main tourist routes. The Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Sanctuary is very ancient and is especially in this place that I found many aspects of Inuyasha manga, like ropes around trees or paper decorations and I saw nuns in the temple dressed like priestess Kikio! In this sanctuary, thanks to the tranquility of the place due to the absence of tourists I could approach and know better some typical ritual of these sacred places.
Another area of interest here is exclusively naturalistic scenic is Shiraito no Taki, where you can admire beautiful waterfalls and a beautiful natural environment.
Tokyo, however, strikes for its greatness and for its modernity, its thousands of neighborhoods, its lights, the absurd quantity of people walking along the streets, the many shops and shopping centers present practically everywhere, inside buildings, In passages from one building to another, etc.
But even Tokyo, despite its modernity and its technology is not a chaotic city of others, traffic flows smoothly because not many people are moving in the car, for the most part, you will find taxi drivers and buses for urban mobility. It is not a gray city, it has several parks and temples, always with gardens and trees in it. The parks of this city are being attacked by travelers, but especially by the locals in the spring during sakura, the blooming of cherry trees, a phenomenon that has helped make Japan even more fascinating and known to foreigners.
What strikes this city is to be able to enjoy the tranquility of the temples not far from modern and frenetic life. Discover hidden and quiet angles of the city not far from the puppet crowd. Modern with the ancient, the present and the future with the past. Even the museums are very interesting and prestigious, you can not leave Tokyo without visiting the Tokyo National Museum, and if you are passionate about Japan in the past, what made it famous and loved in the West also visit the Edo Museum , You will not regret it! In addition to the famous and busy Sensoji Temple, do not miss a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen, Toshogu Shrine, Shinobazu Pond and Yasukai Shrine.
Hakone is a great place to try one of its famous honsen, but especially to observe Mount Fuji. It is reachable from Tokyo by taking several trains in about 2 hours ½.
If you are lucky, you may attend beautiful local events where all the inhabitants of the area dress traditional costumes and represent life scenes from a past era through dances and various songs and plays.
The town of Hakone is small but very pretty, it is crossed by a stream and surrounded by greenery. Hakone is known for creating pretty hand-carved wooden items but also for the Little Prince’s Museum, built in 1999 as part of the celebration project of the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth.
From the city of Hakone you can reach Ashinoto Lake from where you can have a spectacular view of Mount Fuji and visit the temple, Kuzuryu Shrine Singu, located on a hillside nestled in completely black woods.
My trip did not touch all the famous destinations and destinations of Japan, let’s say that my time in Japan was not just a trip but above all, a life experience in Japan land spent largely in Shiba Prefecture, one of the Major in Tokyo, in the town of Honda. After our trip, between a trip and another, I lived my daily life in a small village where I was the only western person. A small town where I went shopping, cycling on the streets, cooking, finding lunchbox or ice cream in a park strictly with chopsticks, watching Japanese television (without understanding), I found myself doing Spending and never knowing what to buy because most of the things I did not even know what they were, where I could not figure out how much I would have to pay.
A home where I slept often on the futon, where I was washing according to the Japanese tradition, where it was normal to have breakfast with a miso soup, rice, an omelet or noodle, a home close to a school from which I could hear the sound of the bell I had heard so often in the manga and Japanese souls I’ve always looked at since I was little. A small town and a country I used to soon not lock in the door of the house, not to worry about shuffling or to go alone in the evening.
A country in which more than anything else I had to face the linguistic obstacle, in which I had to explain in English things that would be difficult and embarrassing to explain in my language, then to translate it from English to Japanese, where I am Rediscovered to cut my hair without being able to explain how, go buy contact lenses and fill sheets by copying my Japanese signature or finding myself in a clinic and again need someone who translate for me, a country where I set down together with drunk business men and women who put all their efforts to talk to me in English, to sing in a nightclub in the red light district of the city, to go to public baths attending locally, etc.
There are so many episodes and memories that I could tell and you can imagine how much time spent in the Land of the Solomon was not just a journey for me, but a truly unique experience. The trip to Japan was for me the most important, intense and beautiful cultural experience of my life.
I do not know when I will have the opportunity to return, I hope very soon to see some nice people.
I like to think I’ll be back soon, maybe when it comes to cherry blossoms. Staying in a traditional home where you can still smell the particular smell of tatami, where I can sit on a soft futon and relax in the warm waters of a honsen, strolling in the zen gardens of the temples, etc… And I lose myself again in her atmospheres Magical and timeless.